Tag: Server Updates

Server Deployments Week 25

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

• There was no deployment to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, June 27th.
  
• On Wednesday, June 28th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
  • BlueSteel and LeTigre should receive the same server maintenance package (#17.06.23.327344) containing internal fixes, and an update to the week #25 deployment (#17.06.19.327206 )
  • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package (#17.06.23.327348) comprising the ongoing OS system update for the simulators, which should have no visible functional changes.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.0.7.327250 on Thursday, June 22nd, and the Voice RC viewer updated to version 5.0.7.327253 on Friday, June 2rd. Both of these changes were to bring the two RC viewers to parity with the current release viewer.

This leaves the rest of the viewer pipelines as:

• Release version: version 5.0.6.326593, released on May 26, promoted June 20 – formerly the AssetHTTP RC viewer
• Project viewers:
  • 360 Snapshot viewer version 5.1.0.506488, dated June 19th (will not provide snapshots with the correct metadata for displayed is 360 images on Flickr)
  • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer version 5.1.0.505089 dated May 11th
• Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Enhanced Environment Project

The details of what is to be included in this project to enhance the Windlight capabilities in Second Life (such as by making them inventory assets) are still be being Sorted. However, during the last simulator User Group meeting where they were discussed, the pre-Windlight volumetric style of clouds was raised. Rider Linden has since poked into the code (and is still poking at it), and had this to say on the matter:

I’m still looking into what we’d need for the volumetric clouds. According to legend, in “The Before Time”, we had volumetric clouds… but there were problems in the algorithm that caused every region to end up with one big cloud hanging over the centre.

Note this does not mean volumetric clouds (which the pre-Second Life version of Windlight was said to be able to support) will be a part of the project. Rather, Rider is looking at what was alongside of what has already been outlined as what is likely to be for the environment enhancements.

SL Golf Issues

There  have been ongoing problems across a number of SL golf courses since around May. These broadly tend to fall into two categories which may or may not be related:

• The region terrain /water height appears to be adjusting itself
• There seem to be terrain / mesh physics issues.

Both are resulting in unpredictable behaviour / physics issues on golf courses, a typical example being (and witnessed first-hand), a golf ball striking the overall between a mesh green surround and the terrain around it can result in the golf ball falling through both the mesh and the ground beneath it (as indicated by its contrail marker), disappearing deep into the “water” under the terrain (see also BUG-100693 for examples of issues).

The problem is this issues appear random and cannot be easily reproduced at any one golf course / hole with any predictability. So, if you are playing a round of golf and encounter these types of problems could you please take time out from your game, grab your viewer log files, and add a comment to BUG-100693, appending your log files and stating which course you were using at the time of the incident, what happened the hole you were on, what happened (and a screen shot of anything relevant)  and a SLurl to the location / course.

Oz and Grumpity Talk Second Life

At the SL14B Meet the Lindens, Oz and Grumpity Linden – respectively the Director of Engineering for Second Life and the Director of Product for Second Life, discussed the platform, recent projects and gave a look into the immediate future.

If you missed the discussion, you can find the video on the official Second Life video channel, and I have a transcript of “selected highlights” from the session (all the core questions and answers), complete with audio extracts of their answers.

SL14B Community Celebration – blog post

Server Deployments Week 25

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates.

• On Tuesday, June 20th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with a new server maintenance package (#17.06.12.327066), containing fixes to help with the caps (capabilities) router, particularly with reference to trying to teleport to regions which have a heavy avatar load (see here for details),. These were essentially the same fixes as deployed to the Main channel on June 6th (server maintenance package #17.05.26.326655), together with additional internal fixes.
• On Wednesday, June 21st, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
  • BlueSteel and LeTigre should receive the same server maintenance package (#17.06.19.327206) containing internal fixes
  • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package (#17.06.19.327192) intended to fix BUG-100830 (“HTTP_CUSTOM_HEADER no longer works on RC 17.06.13.327111”) and BUG-100831 (“Lelutka Simone bento head spits a script error when attached on 17.06.13.327111 regions (Magnum & Cake)”).

SL Viewer

The Asset HTTP RC viewer, version 5.0.6.326593 dated May 23rd, was promoted to de facto release status on Tuesday, June 20th.  This viewer includes avatar rendering updates – see my RC overview for more.

The snapshot viewer updated to version 5.1.0.506488 on Monday, June 19th. This version should include all the necessary metadata in 360-degree shoot to play them as 360 images on suitable websites. However, in testing, it does not appear to work with Flickr.

Otherwise, the current viewer pipelines line-up as:

• Release channel cohorts:
  • Maintenance RC viewer version 5.0.6.327125 dated June 15th
  • Voice RC viewer, version 5.0.6.326589 dated May 31st
    
• Project viewers:
  • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer version 5.1.0.505089 dated May 11th
• Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news.

• On Tuesday, June 6th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with a server maintenance package (17.05.26.326655), containing fixes to help with the caps (capabilities) router, particularly with reference to trying to teleport to regions which have a heavy avatar load (see here for details).
• On Wednesday, June 7th, the RC channels should be updated as follows:
  • BlueSteel and LeTigre should each receive the same server maintenance package (17.06.01.326763), comprising internal fixes.
  • Magnum should receive a server maintenance package, but details were still TBD at the time of writing.

Capabilities Losses at Region Restart

Some regions are still suffering capabilities failures at restart (see this forum thread for an example, and see these wiki pages for more information on capabilities: Capabilities and Current Sim Capabilities). This overall caps system is shared at the server level, so when problems like this occur, it affects all of the regions on that server, which then require an individual restart to correct.

SL Viewer

There have been no further viewer updates since my last project updates article. This leaves the current viewer pipeline as follows:

• Current Release version 5.0.5.326444, dated May 18th, promoted May 23rd – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview
• Release channel cohorts:
  • Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.0.6.326731, dated June 1st
  • Voice RC viewer, version 5.0.6.326589, dated on May 31st
  • Project AssetHttp viewer, version 5.0.6.326593 dated May 26th – overview
    
• Project viewers:
  • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer, version 5.1.0.505089, dated May 11th
  • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712 dated November 23rd, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images
• Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Other Items

Environmental Update

“We are going to kick off a set of environment improvements – exact scope is still TBD,” Oz Linden states at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, June 6th. “[but] there are a couple of hot problems that need to be stomped first.”

While the exact nature of these improvements is still TBD, the comment sparked a conversation on parcel windlight settings, which Oz indicated the Lab is still planning on implementing. While all discussion on this is still somewhat speculative, the current thinking on this at the Lab is:

• The precedence will be 1) viewer local (so if you set a windlight through the viewer, that will take priority over any windlight indicated by the region / parcel) , 2) parcel (if allowed by estate), and 3) region
• Currently, it is unlikely that the parcel controls will allow setting windlight environments by altitude (aka Firestorm zoning).

The latter point is perhaps the most contentious for those using the current Firestorm zoning for windlight – not only does this allow different windlight conditions for different altitudes (particularly useful in role-play regions which may have different locations stacked vertically, each of which is ideally suited it its own environmental setting), it also things like caves and caverns to have their environment set to midnight, naturally darkening them (a technique we use at Caitinara Bar for the benefit of those using Firestorm).

In addition to parcel windlight, the Lab is looking to add an experience-controlled way to change environment for an individual avatar – so that those joining an experience will have their viewer automatically adopt the windlight setting for the experience, if one is set. This could also provide a means for “altitude zoning” of windlights to some degree.

None of these additions will prevent users applying their own viewer-side windlight should they wish (as noted above).

Other subjects possibly on the list of environmental settings:

• Selectable cloud textures (similar to the capability in Firestorm)
• The ability to change the moon texture
• Adjustable day length (so, for example, one SL day =  a physical world day)

As Oz noted in the meeting, the details of what the Lab would consider working on with the environment improvements has yet to be fully defined; however, he also added, “When we get to the point where we’re ready to start work on it (hopefully very soon), we’ll post a description of what we’ve got in mind … and yes, we’ll accept suggestions for improvements then.”

Costa Blanco – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates and news.

• On Tuesday, May 23rd, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the server maintenance package previously deployed to LeTigre in week #20, containing the updated server-side parcel access override settings (more below)
• On Wednesday, May 24th, the RC channels should be updated with a new server maintenance package containing the parcel access override controls, together with a fix for BUG-100704, “[Server] If Anyone Can visit is selected after Allow Group was set only group members can enter”.

SL Viewer

The Maintenance viewer, version 5.0.5.326444, dated May 18th, 2017 was promoted to release status on Tuesday, May 23rd.

This viewer is notable for its inclusion of some improvements to Trash purging behaviour, and support for the parcel access overrides which as of this week are fully deployed across the grid.

I have an overview of this viewer, which examines both the Trash purging changes and the parcel access overrides in detail, as well as touching on the other updates included in the release.

Outside of this, the current pipeline remains as:

• Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
  • Voice RC viewer, version 5.0.5.325998, dated May 5th
  • Project AssetHttp project viewer,  version 5.0.5.325940, dated May 4th – This viewer moves fetching of several types of assets to HTTP / CDN – overview
    
• Project viewers:
  • Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer, version 5.1.0.505089, dated May 11th
  • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images.
• Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Expect the two RC viewers to be updated to bring them to parity with the new release viewer viewer.

Infrastructure Updates

As noted in my week #20 updates (notably the TPV Developer meeting notes), the Lab is working on a range of infrastructure updates, together with updates to things like the teleport re-try throttle (which can place a considerable load on the “receiving” region’s simulator). It is hoped that these updates will a) help SL progress into the future, b) potentially offer further increases in the numbers of avatar regions can support.

Other Items

Changes to Mesh Upload Access

Linden Lab recently changed the requirements for being able to upload mesh content to Second Life. For more information, see my separate update.

Instancing Regions?

Note: this is not an actual project with the Lab, nor is it necessarily on the roadmap for SL development. What follows is purely in the realm of speculative discussion.

During the Simulator User Group Meeting on Tuesday, May 23rd, it was asked if instancing regions (notably private standalone regions) might some day be possible. That is, if there is a stand-alone region hosting a very popular event, a copy of the entire region might be spawned, which would then allow people into it to deal with the demand.

While there are a wide range of infrastructure, permission system  and other issues associated with it (how is the instance to be paid for? what about No Copy items, can they be reproduced in an instance of a region, where technically they aren’t a duplicate? How is the required hardware managed & what happens when demand for additional server space isn’t high?, etc.), the idea wasn’t ruled as being completely out-of-bounds. Right now it remains purely on the “someday maybe” wish list.